Charlie O'Brien asks what is the perfect number in her latest My Kent Family blog

I only gave birth 10 weeks ago and already I’m being asked “So – are you going to
have another?”

In fact people were asking me that when I was still in the hospital, freshly
stitched! Ouch!

The answer by the way is an absolute definite NO. We know that two is our
number – for so many reasons.

One of the reasons is that the journey to having children was a bumpy one for us,
and we feel we couldn’t put ourselves through the worry another time. Another reason for me personally is that I’m feeling more than ready to get my career back on track.

Add this to the chronic sleep deprivation and the fact that we’re not spring
chickens and our minds are more than made up.

But it got me thinking – what is the perfect number?

I’ve even googled it – “What is the perfect number of children to have?”

There are tonnes of discussion articles and mum forums – full of women who
secretly crave another, even though they’ve declared to the world that they’re
done.

My brother asked me this week “but what if you get broody again?” And the answer is – I know that I definitely WILL feel broody again. When the sleepless nights have subsided, and my daughter loses her glorious ‘babyness’ and turns into a little person.

When I bag up the last of the babygrows and stop breastfeeding.

When tantrums start and she begins to talk.

When I realise that I’ll never again experience that first magical kick from inside.

Just writing this, I’ve got tears in my eyes at the prospect of her warm little body
no longer sleeping on my chest. Or the eye contact we make as she feeds.

I utterly hate the thought that I’ll never buy a hat or vest in size “tiny” again. But I know I’m done. I know I have to be.

So how do we stop the feelings that will inevitably come? And is there such a
thing as a perfect number?!

Charlie

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